


By Any Other Name

by XOLove47



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-05
Updated: 2016-09-05
Packaged: 2018-08-13 02:58:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7959697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/XOLove47/pseuds/XOLove47
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What's in a name? A ficlet reflecting on the many names of Leopold Fitz and his feelings towards them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	By Any Other Name

**Author's Note:**

  * For [theskyefalls (emmathecharming)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/emmathecharming/gifts).



> Inspired by theskyefalls' gif set (http://theskyefalls.tumblr.com/post/147676403428/unknown) and written for Team Engineering's Team Biochem Appreciation project.

For as long as he could remember, Leopold Fitz disliked his name. It was needlessly old-fashioned and it wasn’t as if it was some important family name. No, apparently his mum had picked it out of thin air. When he was five he complained to his mum about why couldn’t he have a normal name, like William or Henry, she told him, “Leopold Fitz is a strong and true name. I chose it because it suited you.”

No disrespect to his mum, but he disagreed. All through primary school. his nose wrinkled up in distaste when ever a teacher called him Leopold; however, the boy genius was never able to convince them to call him by anything but his “given” name. As he grew older, it became easier-- he took to introducing himself as Fitz, and luckily, the name stuck.

By the time he reached the SHIELD Academy, hardly anybody besides his mum called him Leopold. Which is why during orientation, when a petite brunette tapped him on the shoulder and said matter-of-factly, “You’re Leopold Fitz, aren’t you?” it caught him off guard.

On instinct, Fitz replied sharply, “Just Fitz, if you don’t mind. And who might you be?”

The Englishwoman nodded and responded, “Well,  _ just _ Fitz, I’m Jemma Simmons, Biochem. I figured as the two youngest students ever admitted into the academy, we should meet. You are likely to be my biggest competition, after all. Even if you are only studying engineering.”

That got Fitz ire up, “In what world is engineering inferior to biochem? I’ll actually be building  _ useful _ things, while you play with your chemistry set.”

“That just ridiculous and patently untrue. I guess we’ll just have to settle this in the classroom. It’ll be fun, I think,” Jemma proclaimed, with a twinkle in her eye as she extended her hand.

Grasping her hand, Fitz rose to the challenge, “I suppose we will. May the best scientist win.”

 

* * *

 

Thankfully, their rivalry didn’t last long. Midway through their first semester, Fitz and Simmons were paired up in chem lab and they realized that if they combined forces, they would be unbeatable. And they were.

As the duo rose through the ranks, first at the academy, and later at SciOps, they were inseparable.  _ Psychically linked,  _ was one of the phrases often uttered around them. 

One of the benefits of SHIELD being a pseudo-military organization, Fitz found, was that it was practically S.O.P. to be called by your last name-- even Simmons was typically referred by her surname. This coupled with their closeness, eventually lead to the nickname Fitzsimmons being bestowed upon them. As one supervisor put it, “We can usually find you two together anyway-- it’s just easier to say it in one breath.” 

The Fitzsimmons moniker followed them to Coulson’s team. With their team though, it wasn’t out of convenience or in a mocking way, as it sometimes had felt at SciOps. Within their found family, it was almost a term of endearment.

For her part, Simmons still always called him Fitz. Except for that one time, when she drifted off while marathoning Doctor Who in his bunk on the Bus and murmured  _ Leo _ in her sleep. Instead of bristling at the name like he usually did, a sense of warmth spread through his chest. 

 

* * *

 

They were Fitzsimmons, until they weren’t. Ward had broken him, broken them-- and now he was alone. The rest of the team studiously avoided even uttering Simmons’ name. Being just Fitz again was a strange feeling and he wasn’t coping well.

Even after Simmons came back, things felt wrong. It took months of awkwardness and the splintering of everyone else on their team, for the pair to return to a semblance of normalcy. Fitzsimmons 2.0. Hope bloomed within him when she said “Maybe there is.” and took hold when she said yes to dinner.

But even that was ripped away from him, when she was swept away by the Monolith.

* * *

 

This time, it was Simmons who came back changed. On her first night back, she woke up screaming his name, in terror. It was the first time it sounded wrong coming from her lips.

For a while, the spectre of another name hung between them.  _ Will.  _ But eventually, that faded away and the magnetism that was Fitzsimmons pulled them ever closer, until they crossed the event horizon.

After Budapest, Fitz noticed that Jemma started calling him Leo more often. He didn’t mind, actually. Like that time on the Bus, it gave him a sense of comfort and warmth and happiness hearing it from her. But, being a scientist, his curiousity got the better of him, and one lazy Sunday in bed, he blurted out, “Why did you start calling me Leo?”

Jemma sat up straight and blushed. 

“I guess, you’ve been Leo in my head for a while now. Fitz is my best friend, my lab partner. Leo is the man I love, my partner in life. It helps me to keep the two parts of our lives separated a bit in my mind,” Jemma rambled. “I know you never liked being called Leo, so if you mind or want me to stop--”

“I don’t mind,” Fitz interrupted. “I actually like it coming from you. It’s something that is just between us-- quite romantic, really, when you put it like that.”

And that was that. In their personal lives, he was Leo, she was Jemma; and professionally, they were still Fitz & Simmons.

Until one day, he found himself standing in front of an altar with Jemma in a gorgeous white dress, with her proclaiming front of all their family and friends,  “I, Jemma, take you, Leopold to be my husband, to have and to hold from this day forward...”

  
His heart thumping in his chest, Fitz barely heard anything after that, because in that moment, his given name sounded like music to his ears. He was now Leopold Fitz, husband and all was right with the world.


End file.
